Western Balkans 6 ministerial meeting took place at the seat of the Energy Community Secretariat in Vienna in the presence of Johannes Hahn, European commissioner for neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations. Ministry of Energy and Industry of Albania said the EU guarantees financial backing for the construction of the country’s 400 kV interconnection line with Macedonia. The Bitola–Elbasan project will start next year, after the Albania–Kosovo* power line is complete, Albeu.com portal cited the ministry’s press release.
Energy officials expressed support for a short list of Projects of Energy Community Interest (PECI) that the European Commission will co-finance from its Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) multi–country programme, the Energy Community said. The officials agreed to establish a regional power market in time for the Western Balkans Summit in Paris in 2016, which will include access to power exchanges in all countries, a regional electricity balancing market and full participation in the South East Europe’s Coordinated Auction Office (SEE CAO) for capacity allocation, the press release said.
The list of projects as well as the regional power market initiative will be endorsed by prime ministers at the Conference on the Western Balkans on August 27, according to information on Energy Community’s portal.
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/99 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
